Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Oh,
my. I have so many art remnants from teaching, writing art books and
experimenting. Periodically I go through them to either experiment more
or to give them a new life. Man Oh Man, It's raining men, started as a piece from one of my books, Alternative Art Surfaces.

I
applied a wash of gesso over the surface to back down the image. This
helped me to reclaim it and give start a new narrative. My work is all
about the story.

After
braying a sheet of Creative Paperclay® onto my surface, I stamped,
stenciled and added cast objects. The flower was a dry cast Creative
Paperclay® object while the others were damp when applied to the
surface. I smooth out areas with a little water on my fingers. I wanted
the escutcheon to be partially buried in the clay to give the feeling of
age.

Once
it has dried, I coated it with a layer of polymer medium matte to seal
the clay before painting. I finished it by lightly applying foil to the
piece.

Reclaim an old piece of art that you have lying around your art space and enjoy the process of starting again.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Being
a mixed media artist allows me to expand my techniques and art
aresenal. I would have a lot less art stuff if I stuck to one media but I
love it all. One thing I love to do is to finish off my art with
texture and I achieve this with both cast and suclpted Creative
Paperclay®.

Before
casting my objects, I mix a dark blue acrylic paint in a bag with my
Creative Paperclay®. It keeps my hands clean and allows me to mix the
two completely. Then I apply the colored clay to my silicone mold and
let it dry thoroughly. At that point I can glue them to my surface with a
soft gel. The bees on the right hand side of the papers were also done
this way. I finished them off by rubbing a lighter color of paint on
them.

I
lightly dampened the surface of the painting then applied the clay in
the shape of an orchid. Using several different tools, I started
blocking in the shape and smoothed the edges with water on my fingers.
When finished, I let dry then painted it with my acrylics.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

So, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time LOL!!!!! Same thing where Creative Paperclay is concerned - how do you learn, one step at a time! I do a lot of paper crafts, from mini albums to cards to entire scrapbook albums to bookmarks.....and the cutest embellishments I have made right now - are done with really cute molds!!! You can purchase them at most of the craft stores, I found really cute ones in a section I normally wouldn't think of - an alphabet one that would be perfect for some of my creations! If you need any help in how to use molds, I have a video you can watch on YouTube - check it out here:

I love using molds - and can't wait to find even more to go with my paper crafts!!!